anthony is found not guilty of murder. this morning anthony could be spending one of her last days in jail. good morning. i'm eun yang. >> good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. welcome to "news 4 today." it is wednesday, the 6th day of july. let's take a live look outside this morning. looks like we have some haze, 77 degrees. probably going to be another humid, warm, hot summer day in the nation's capital. >> check the calendar. it says july. check the location, it says washington. >> oh, yes. heat and humidity is generally what we get this time of year, and it's going to be with us the next several days and into the foreseeable future all the way into next week. get used to it and respect it too. don't over exert in this heat and humidity. right now it's a steamy morning and mild. we're in the 70s, upper 70s in washington and our southern and eastern suburbs. western and northern suburbs, it's in the upper 60s to near 70 from eastern west virginia through much of maryland and

virginia. and the view from space showing a few showers beginning to develop. they're along a front that's drifting up our way. it's going to be with us here and stalled out over the region by later today. showers down near roanoke and lynchburg. there's the hazy sky over at the washington monument. sunrise is about 50 minutes away. it's around 5:49 this morning. our temperatures by 9:00 will be into the low 80s. we'll have some hazy sunshine and quite a bit of clouds around this afternoon as we hover around 90 for much of the afternoon. late afternoon into early evening, could get some storms. there's a slight risk they would be severe just south of washington. a look at the night planner in ten minutes. danella has a look at our traffic. i do. i also have report of an accident with possible lane blockage. this is on the beltway inner loop as you approach 270. just be aware of that. i am going to keep tracking this for you and see exactly how this is going to affect your commute. so far no significant delays at this time. i do want to take you down to

virginia. this is 95 at fairfax county parkway. i am seeing a little bit of volume in this area. however, nothing too significant you can see as you head 95 north. you know, you've got some other commuters with you, but, again, nothing too serious. let's take a trip to d.c. right now. this is d.c., new york and bladensburg. so far d.c., your local roads are looking good as well. i'll be back in ten minutes with another update. back to you, joe and eun. >> thank you very much, danella. 5:02. the murder trial against casey anthony which captivated the nation is now decided. >> as to the charge of first degree murder, verdict as to count one, we, the jury, find the defendant not guilty. >> casey anthony sobbed as the court clerk read the verdict. a jury acquitted anthony on the most serious charges of murder and child abuse. prosecutors accused her of suffocating her 2-year-old daughter caylee with duct tape. the jury chose not to speak to the media after delivering its verdict, but an alternate offered his opinion. >> the prosecution didn't meet the burden of proof.

we had a lot of reasonable doubt there. >> she was found guilty of lying to police. the judge set sentencing for that verdict for tomorrow. but there is a chance casey anthony may get out of jail since she spent nearly three years behind bars while waiting for her trial. today a virginia mother is expected to turn herself over to police after being charged with felony murder and child neglect after leaving her toddler in her minivan while at work. veterinarian karen murphy is accused of leaving her 2-year-old child ryan in the family vehicle for seven hours earlier this month on a day when temperatures reached 85 degrees. by the time the boy was found after her husband reportedly discovered he was not at daycare as thought, the little boy was dead. it wasn't the first time she had forgotten her child in her car apparently. court documents show that murphy left her son in the car for 20 minutes in january in her work parking lot. murphy is expected to appear in court after turning herself in. also today, a grand jury is

set to hear new charges against the driver behind the wheel for the crash near çking's dominio. he is already charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter for the four passengers who died in that crash. investigators discovered he fell asleep at the wheel, causing the crash in may. his wife says he told the bus company he was too tired to drive, but he drove anyway because he feared for his job. each charge carries up to ten years in prison. police in two jurisdictions hope a new website will lead them to a killer in a georgetown cold case. the site will seek information in the 1998 murder of christine. she was assaulted and beaten to death on her way back to her dorm room at georgetown university. investigators say they recently used dna to connect her killer to a series of rapes in montgomery county in the 1990. they hope by posting a composite of the killer, they will have similar success to detectives hunting the east coast rapist. this morning a 25-year-old autistic man is charged with

stabbing his father to death. it happened in great falls, virginia. that's in fairfax county. casey emmer reported a break-in on the fourth of july. when officers arrived, they discovered his father lawrence emmer dead. police say it happened while his mother and brother were away watching fireworks. he's being held without bond. this is the sixth homicide in fairfax county this year. the third, police say, that is domestic related. there are calls for prince george's county council member leslie johnson to immediately resign in the wake of federal corruption charges against her. she handed in a resignation letter to county council on july 1st, which delays a special election to fill her seat. she pled guilty to destroying evidence against her husband jack johnson. some say a resignation letter this month does a disservice to residents of prince george's county. >> i think we should have the special election as quickly as possible, which means the resignation should be as quickly

as possible. >> leslie johnson's sentencing is set for october the 13th. metro's escalator problems are getting worse, and that's no surprise to metro riders who use the system regularly. news 4's melissa mollet is live at the foggy bottom metro station in northwest washington with more on metro's problems. >> reporter: good morning to you. according to this six-page report they put out every month, this month is some different numbers. only 82%, they say, of metro's escalators were working properly in the month of may. that's a difference to the 89% they want to be working properly. take a look behind me at foggy bottom this morning. already some repairs for this metro escalator here under way. now, of course, this is a monthly report that will be presented to metro's board of directors on thursday, that shows in the month of may, 100 of the system's 588 escalators were not working. in february an escalator here at

foggy bottom partially collapsed. luckily, nobody was hurt. performance is also worsening in several other categories. bus and rail on time performance not looking as good this month, and customer injury rate also up a tad. now, the one thing that has increased is a number of inspections performed, up 8% over the month of april. metro has assigned a maintenance team, they say, to the busiest stations, and they promise to fill manager and supervisor positions this month to help improve maintenance at the busiest stations on the line. if you would like to take a full look at this 36-page report, you can do so at our website, nbcwashington.com. back to you. >> melissa mollet live in northwest washington for us. melissa, thank you. one of the world's most revered figures in d.c. for more than a week. we'll tell you where and how you can see the dalai lama. ♪

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good morning, a hazy and humid morning. i'm tom kierein. live picture from the city camera showing the first light of day showing up on the eastern horizon. weather and traffic on the ones at 5:11. around our region, we do have the thick haze and summer

humidity with us, and temperatures in the mid and upper 70s in washington. prince george's county, charles, calvert, st. mary's, anne arundel in the mid-70s there. eastern shore, most locations are near 70. farther to our west, arlington, fairfax, montgomery counties near 70 degrees as well as much of the region. and there is the sunrise under way. it will be coming up in about 40 minutes. our temperatures will be into the low 80s. by 9:00 a little hazy sunshine. quite a bit of cloudiness this afternoon. temperatures will be hovering around 90 through much of the afternoon. late afternoon into early evening, we could get a few scattered thunderstorms coming through, moving in from the southwest heading northwest. slight risk they would be severe with damaging winds or hail in virginia mainly. partly cloudy by midnight, and by this time tomorrow morning mid-70s, and a humid pattern toward the end of the week and the weekend in ten minutes. danella, how's traffic? let's start out in maryland. as we head over to maryland, i have report of an accident on the inner loop of the beltway just as you're approaching 270.

possible lane blockage, but so far i don't see it affecting your commute too drastically at this time. i just want you to be cautious as you make your commute. as you head up to 270, so far it's clear for you. 270 north and south as you make your coe. i w beltway to the 14th street bridge in both directions traveling 395, it is a good commute for you. and the rails are open. so far metro, marc, and vre no delays. i'll be back in ten minutes with another update. eun and joe, back to you. >> danella, thanks very much. 5:12. 78 degrees. ahead on "news 4 today," making history at the imf. what the organization's first female leader can expect in her new role.

welcome back. it's 5:15. the dalai lama is in d.c. he's hosting a ten-day event where he'll offer spiritual teachings to thousands of people and meet top lawmakers. kimberly suiters is live at the verizon center where the festivities are set to begin in just a few hours. kimberly, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, eun. this is the first event the dalai lama has held since leaving official political life, and this event is going to happen right here at the verizon center. it is a huge deal for the verizon center, one of the

largest they've ever had. they're expecting more than 100,000 people to come here. the dalai lama hosting a ten-day event called the kalachakra. the annual event focuses on the teachings of a prayerful and peaceful life. it also doubles as a prayer service for world peace. more than 100,000 people are expected to come over that ten-day period. so about 10,000 a day. this is only the third time this kind of event has been held in north america. people we've spoken to say they have a sense of inner peace about the fact that he's coming, but they're also externally very thrilled about his appearance. >> he's just an amazing, inspirational force, and it's such a privilege to be in his presence. >> to listen to him and take home something that was missing. >> reporter: today is also a special day for the dalai lama.

it is his 76th birthday. here's a breakdown of the dalai lama's visit. today he'll give a short teaching followed by a birthday celebration. then coming up on july 9th, the dalai lama will give a talk for world peace on the west lawn of the national mall. he'll talk about the foundations of buddhist philosophy and ethics. from july 12th he'll talk about the empowerment of the kalachakra. the closing ceremony will be held on the 16th. everything gets under way this morning at 9:30. and it's one of those things where 100,000 people, huge event, you're talking about all this excitement, and at the same time with the dalai lama, there's always this very peaceful presence, people very calm and talking about the buddhist philosophy. so an interesting combination there. reporting live at the verizon center, i'm kimberly suiters. eun, back to you in the studio. >> it's interesting to see with that many people will there be calm with traffic and getting around that area later today. we'll see? >> reporter: yeah.

we'll have to ask them how they handle that stressful situation. >> kimberly suiters. kimber kimberly, thank you. 5:18 is the time. president obama is calling on congress to end the debt showdown in the next two weeks. he summoned leaders from both parties to the white house to talk about raising the nation's borrowing limit before the august 2nd deadline. republicans say a deal that hinges on raising taxes is not an option. meanwhile democrats say the economy could soon unravel if the two sides don't come up with a plan. >> our view is the way you solve the debt crisis is to go on a diet, not a shopping spree. >> defaulting on the debt would risk millions of american jobs. it could halt tax refunds, social security checks, medicare payments, and even paychecks for our troops. >> the president said he strongly opposes short term increases but stopped short of saying he would rule out a limited extension of the debt ceiling. this morning new york governor andrew cuomo is denying speculation that he might become president obama's running mate. some have suggested that current vice president joe biden would

become secretary of state, and cuomo would replace him on the 2012 democratic ticket. the governor called the speculation political chatter and silliness and said he is focused eon his current job. an oregon man is in customer threatening to kill president obama and his family. prosecutors say james swanson made a number of phone calls to federal offices and said he'd shoot the obamas. the secret service arrested him and did not find weapons in his portland apartment. a judge ordered him to take a mental health evaluation. the new chief of the international monetary fund will face the media for the first time today. she's bound to get some tough questions. christine lagarde officially took the helm of the imf yesterday following the resignation of dominique strauss-kahn. besides repairing the organization's image, lagarde also faces the huge economic crisis in greece and the impression among developing nations that the imf is more willing to help western countries. lagarde is the former finance minister of france and the first

woman to head the imf. meanwhile, her predecessors is facing new sexual assault gaacseded tempd rape. kristen bannion filed a formal complaint which accuses strauss-kahn of grabbing her in a 2003 interview and attempting to wrestle her to the ground. strauss-kahn was released from house arrest on friday after prosecutors admitted they had serious questions about the credibility of a new york city hotel housekeeper who claimed that she was sexually assaulted. one of the 13 people injured in a january shooting that tried to take the life of congresswoman gabrielle giffords is back to work. 65-year-old ron barber is the district director of the congresswoman's tucson office. he was hit in the cheek and eye during the shooting at a tucson grocery store that killed six people and wounded giffords. barber will work part time as he continues his recovery. one of the world's greatest golfers will be absent for the

second straight major in a row. tiger woods announced he will miss the british open, which starts next week. he's still nursing a knee and achilles injury he sustained at the masters. woods tried to play at the players championship back in may but dropped out after nine holes. woods said in a statement that he's only going to come back when he is 100% ready, and he is, quote, very disappointed and apologized to british open fans. it is now 5:21. time for weather and traffic on the ones. meteorologist tom kierein is going to tell us about the hot and steamy forecast. >> there it is. you can see it. live picture from the city camera. summer haze there around the capital. right now it's 77 at reagan national. quite a mild and steamy morning. right now prince george's county, temperatures there in the mid-70s. arlington county is also mid-70s. near 70 in fairfax and montgomery county, points west. and to our south we're in the mid-70s to low 70s around southern maryland, much of virginia, and the lower part of the eastern shore.

sunrise at 5:49. by 9:00 we ought to be around 80 degrees or so. hazy sunshine around and quite a bit of cloudiness this afternoon, hovering around 90 degrees. late afternoon and early evening, there is a chance of a few scattered storms coming through. and a risk of some severe storms, mainly just south of washington, perhaps parts of southern maryland and much of virginia, that would be a risk, maybe damaging winds or hail late afternoon or early evening. then tomorrow another hot and humid day. partly sunny, up around 90. scattered afternoon and evening storms likely. more of the same on friday. any clouds or storms around friday might linger into friday night and perhaps very early saturday morning. the rest of the weekend looks dry saturday and sunday, monday, tuesday, each day around 90. still humid. slight chance of storms on tuesday. danella, how's traffic? i still have that accident inner loop of the beltway in maryland. this is just as you're approaching 270. your three right lanes are blocked, but you are able to pass on the left. two lanes are able to get by on the left. i want to show you this if you're traveling on the inner loop. once y g your way towards 270,

stick to the left in virginia. i am seeing some traffic, and this is north right here of the occoquan. it's some volume, but nothing too significant at this time. and a look at our rails. metro, marc, vre are all still running on time, and there is a problem here on the foggy bottom metro station. we saw this yesterday. the entrance escalators are still down. i'll be back in ten minutes with another update. eun, back to you. >> danella, thank you. 5:23 now. about 1 million heading to florida's coast to sieee nasa's shuttle launch on friday may have to change their plans. a shuttle officer says there's a 60% chance that rain or thunderstorms will postpone the liftoff for "atlantis." the forecast improves for saturday and sunday. whenever the shuttle launches, astronauts say they're preparing for a historic mission. >> i hope that i paint nasa in the finest light, that we pull off the cleanest mission possible because we want to finish on the strongest note. >> "atlantis" is scheduled to launch at 11:26 friday morning and make one last supply run to

the international space station. after landing, the shuttle will head to a museum. remember the horse chase scenes from the old western movies. time and technology seem to catch up with everything. check out this police dash cam video to see a modern day horse chase. a horse apparently got loose from a farm in ohio, and local police tried to give chase. the horse ran for eight miles along the country road. police even tried putting their car before the horse. excuse me. that failed too. the horse named java eventually got tired and was safely captured and returned to the farm. know word on whether i got a ticket. a peruvian chicken restaurant is clucking along in rockville now that its mascot is intact. remember someone took the head off a kicking chicken. over the weekend, a teenager returned it along with an apology letter. he said it was a prank gone wrong, and workers declined to press charges. they said they wouldn't press charges. please return the head, no

questions asked. at least are or she sent an apology letter. >> yeah, that's decent. guards at a mexican prison caught a woman trying to sneak her boyfriend out of jail. >> she stuffed him in a suitcase and tried to wheel him out of the main door. the 19-year-old girl was at the whenhe tri to on jugal visit. unusually large and she was he inside. he was in the 4th year of a 20-year sentence for possessions of illegal weapons. the woman was arrested, and charges are pending. what do we say about that, joe? >> just when you thought you heard it all. >> that's a small suitcase. that's a lot of cramming. >> must have been a little prisoner. 5:26 is our time. an oil spill in one of the country's most scenic rivers. the issue that has some fearing the crisis could turn into a catastrophe. how do i take on tough back pain?

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get your walking shoes ready. you could be winded after your commute this morning as we learn just how many metro escalators are broken or under repair. good morning. i'm eun yang. >> good morning to you. i'm joe krebs. welcome to "news 4 today." it is wednesday, the 6th of july. live look outside. you can see the humidity already in the air as the sun gets ready to come up. 74 degrees here in the nation's capital on the 6th of july. tom's here with a look at the forecast. >> the most comfortable we're going to get this morning. i think so. steamy day on the way. sunrise in 20 minutes. we do have hazy conditions on the region right now. upper 70s in washington. low to mid-70s in prince george's county, much of southern maryland, northern neck, eastern shore. farther to the west and north, montgomery counties near 70 and points west as well. out of the mountains, temperatures there are in the low 60s many locations. you can see the cloud cover

coming up from the south. there are showers as well showing up on radar from near roanoke and lynchburg. now just to the west of richmond. those may make their way up along the shenandoah valley and blue ridge over the next several hours. right now there's the partly cloudy hazy sky over capitol hill. live picture there from our city camera. by 9:00 partly sunny sky. the low 80s. by noontime upper 80s. mostly cloudy and a mostly cloudy afternoon, highs hovering around 90. late afternoon, early evening we could get storms. some of them could be severe in virginia. a look at your night planner. that will be in about ten minutes. a look at traffic right now with danella sealock. still trouble on the beltway inner loop. this is in maryland as you approach 270. your three right lanes are still blocked. the two left lanes, you're able to pass. i want to show you. you see this yellow and we get red as you head towards this accident. it is causing you some delay this morning. here's a look further down, 495

at gw parkway. the inner loop is getting a little heavy, but you're still able to pass. i want to take you up to 270. i am seeing volume at 270 and 109. volume coming as you marbg your way out of urbana and heading towards clarksburg. no major delays. metros are open. metro, marc, and vre still on time and looking good. joe, back to you. tomorrow casey anthony will find out whether she will have to spend any more time behind bars, this as the nation watched on tv as her not guilty verdict was read on television. after 11 hours of deliberation, the jury acquitted the florida mother of killing her 2-year-old daughter caylee. she was also found not guilty of child abous charges. the jurors chose not to speak to the media after delivering its verdict, but one alternate juror did offer his opinion. >> the prosecution didn't meet the burden of proof. we had a lot of reasonable doubt there. >> anthony was found guilty of

lying to police, but she might not have to serve any additional prison time for that verdict since she's already been in jail almost three years. this morning the families of seven missing u.s. tourists await word about their loved ones after their fishing boat capsized off the mexican coast. the search will resume later today. the tourists were enjoying their second day at sea in their week long fishing trip when a sudden storm struck, capsizing the boat sunday. the group organized a fishing trip for the past several years around the fourth of july. 19 fishermen and all 16 crew members were rescued. the oil spill near yellowstone national park is larger than first feared and may be more difficult to clean up. about 1,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the yellowstone river in montana when an exxon mobil pipeline broke on friday. montana's governor disputes claims by the oil company that the crude oil affected only 25 miles of the river. he believes the oil traveled hundreds of miles north all the way into north dakota.

metro's escalator problems are getting worse, but that's not the only thing going from bad to worse on the system. news 4's melissa mollet is live outside the foggy bottom metro station in northwest washington with more on metro's problems. melissa, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, eun. frustration over the mounting issues really has been mounting over the past couple of months. behind me here at foggy bottom, one of the three escalators is actually working. only one going down. and you can look over here and see all the construction that is happening here at foggy bottom right now with a past due date post of june 2011 for these repairs to be complete. the latest report shows in the month of may more than 100 of the system's 588 escalators was not working. the monthly report looks at whether the metro's service is improving, deteriorating, or remaining steady. this report will be presented to the board of directors on thursday. reports also worsening in

several other categories, bus and rail on time performance down a bit, as well as the customer injury rate, which is up slightly. there is, though, one thing that has increased. the number of inspections completed, up 8% over april. metro now assigning maintenance teams to be busy at stations. they promise to fillannd supe pitns in j lines. rid w just spoke with said these repairs need to be done. >> i have a disability on my right foot sometimes, and the escalators and elevators are not working, just kind of inconvenience for me to get back and forth to work. >> reporter: if you'd like to take a look at the 36-page report, you can log onto our website at nbcwashington.com, and we will take you there. live in northwest washington, melissa mollet, news 4. back to you, eun.

>> melissa, thank you. president obama will hold the first of its kind twitter town hall. he'll begin answering questions at 2:00 this afternoon. one of the perks of being president is he will not have to limit his answers to 140 characters. the town hall will focus on jobs and the economy. you can send the president a tweet to @town hall using the hash tag -- that's the pound sign -- ask obama. he's no stranger to social media. he's held similar online town halls on facebook and youtube. south koreans are hoping the third time is the charm at winning the 2018 winter olympics. >> they are so excited, they've already unveiled the first venue even though the winning bid won't be announced until today. this is called alpienza, a local ski jump venue. pyeongchang is anxious to win after losing out on bids for 2016.

the international olympic committee will announce the winning bid later today. whoever gets the olympics, you'll be able to watch them right here on nbc. >> i'm rooting for the south koreans. >> i can imagine you would. >> yeah. it is now 5:36. 75 degrees. the preacher who predicted the end of the world earlier this year is now in the hospital.

good morning. predawn sky over the potomac river. you can see the summer haze. live picture from the city camera. here's another picture of the sky. this is from our sky watcher camera from 300 feet above washington. sky looking like salmon steaks ready for the grill. temperatures in mid and upper 70s in washington. eastern and southern suburbs. around the bay, eastern shore, low to mid-70s there. farther to our west and north, northern virginia and maryland near 70 degrees. much of west virginia and western maryland right now, their temperatures are in the 60s. and we'll have this hazy sky with us this morning. by 9:00 we'll in the low 80s, little sunshine in and out. and a mostly cloudy afternoon. we'll have temperatures hovering around 90 through much of the afternoon. late afternoon and into early evening, we could get some thunderstorms coming through.

there is a risk they would be severe, mainly in virginia and southern maryland. and any storms that might be severe might just briefly produce brief damaging winds. after that, any storms around will dissipate. a steamy start to tomorrow. a look at the rof theeek and the weekend in ten minutes. here's a look at the traffic with danella sealock. rouble inner loop of the beltway. we have a two-car accident blocking the lanes. you are able to pass on the left. but as soon as you're traveling the inner loop of the beltway, once you pass gw parkway, going to be a slow ride for you until you pass the accident. want to take you to 270 in clarksburg. i am seeing volume as you head down from urbana. once you get to clarksburg, the lanes are open, and it's a smooth ride. 95 north of occoquan. those headlights coming towards us, that's 95 north traffic heavy at this time. back to you, joe and eun. >> danella, thank you. think charlie sheen has been

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it is now 5:44. a virginia mother is expected to turn herself over to police after being charged with leaving at workdler in her hot man veterinarian karen murphy is accused of leaving her 2-year-old ryan in the family vehicle for seven hours on a day when the temperatures reached 83 degrees. by the time she realized it, ryan was dead. court documents show that murphy left her son in the car for 20 minutes in january in the work parking lot. murphy is expected to appear in court after turning herself in and faces felony murder and

child neglect charges. 5:45. today a grand jury is set to hear evidence about possible new charges against a bus driver behind the wheel in the deadly crash on i-95 near king's dominion. he is already charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter with the deaths of four passengers who were killed. investigators discovered he fell asleep at the wheel, causing the crash back in may. his wife says he told the bus company he was too tired to drive that day but he drove anyway because he feared for his job. each charge carries up to ten years in prison. police in two jurisdictions hope a new website will lead them to the killer in a georgetown cold case. the site will seek information in the 1999 murder o chr mirzay she was xually assaulted and beaten to death on her way wak to her dorm a georgetown university. dna recently linked her murder to a series of rapes in montgomery county. they hope they will have similar

success to the detectives hunting the east coast rapist. this morning a 25-year-old autistic man is charged with stabbing his father to death in great falls, fairfax county. casey emmer reported a break-in on july 4th. when police arrived, they discovered his father lawrence emmer was dead. it happened while the suspect's mother and brother were away watching fireworks that day. emmer is being held without bond. this is the sixth homicide in fairfax county this year shall the third, police say, that is domestic related. a second man was arrested in connection with a deadly shooting near the caribbean festival last month. 20-year-old deonte bryant is charged with second degree murder. investigators say he was one of the gunmen involved in the shooting along gresham place that killed robert foster jr. and injured two by standers. the fourth shooting victim terry jimenez was also arrested. police say the shooting was gang

related. some say july 31st is not soon enough for council member johnson. she pleaded guilty to evidence tampering last week. she mitted esubmitted a resignan to the council, but since it's not effective until the end of the month, it delays prince george's county from finding a replacement. they voted to strip her of her office staff, her car, and her cell phone for the remainder of her term. she will be sentenced in october. d.c. police response to hate crimes will be the topic of a special city council hearing later this morning. police chief kathy lanier is set to testify along with the group gays and lesbians opposing violence. the public safety committee is trying to determine if police are responding appropriately to hate crimes. the hearing is set to begin at 10:00 this morning. today thousands of people are coming to d.c. to see and hear the dalai lama. he's hosting a ten-day event during which he will speak at

spiritual gatherings and meet with top u.s. lawmakers. kimberly suiters is live down at the verizon center where things are set to begin in a few hours. kimberly, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, joe. the dalai lama retired from public office back in march. it is fascinating and perhaps no accident that, as he wants to focus on being a spiritual leader, he has chosen the capital of the world's super power to plant those seeds of spirituality here at the verizon center, a huge unprecedented event for the verizon center. they are expecting 100,000 people all told to take part in a ten-day complex ritual in tibetan buddhism, called the kalachakra. it also dubloubles as a prayer service for world peace. this is only the third time the event has been held in north america. people who plan to attend say they have very high xwpations f for a fulfilling experience.

>> he's an amazing, inspiration force, and it's such a privilege to be in his presence. >> to listen to him and take home something that was missing. >> reporter: today is significant for another reason. the dalai lama turns 76 yaerear olded too. here's a breakdown of his visit. today he's giving a short teaching this morning at 9:30 followed by a birthday celebration. on july 9th, you'll want to write that day down because this is the only free event. the dalai lama will give a talk for world peace on the west lawn of the national mall in the morning. he's also talk about the foundations of buddhist philosophy and ethics. then from july 12th through the 15th, he's going to, quoting now, bestow the empowerment of the kalachakra. simply put, it will be a huge peace festival. the closing ceremony will be on july 16th. how can you take part?

you need to get tickets in advance. verizon center or ticketmaster. individual tickets for each day run $35 apiece. it's $175 for the entire program. if you can't buy a ticket, there will be a live web cast in english and chinese. a very modern lama for us. reporting live at the verizon center, kimberly suiters, news 4. now back to you in the studio. >> kimberly, thanks very much. this morning thousands are without power after a massive sandstorm. take a look at the amazing video. you can see the huge dust storm move across the sky neart an ho. the storm knocked out power lines, leaving thousands in the dark and the heat. >> imagine getting that out of your hair and your teeth. >> exactly. roll up all the windows and just kind of hold tight. my goodness. tom, for us, it's not that bad. the humidity is pretty thick out there. it has returned and it will be with us here for the next

several days and for the foreseeable future. here we are in july, of course, and we typically get these extended periods of heat and humidity this time of year. right now the radar is scanning the sky. no storms around this morning. we do have one shower there showing up in greene county and farther to the south and west, just south of stanton, virginia, in augusta county. these are passing off to the north and may be moving into the central shenandoah valley in a couple of hours, perhaps along the blue ridge into rappahannock county. this one shower may hold together, head up towards speryville in another 15, 20 minutes or so. elsewhere, we have clouds around this morning, and temperatures in the upper 70s in washington and low to mid-70s, southern maryland, around the bay, eastern shore. much of virginia is near 70, as is most of maryland. much of west virginia now in the 60s, as is much of western maryland. and right around the lower part of the eastern shore, southeastern virginia now in the mid-70s. over the last 12 hours, seeing this flow shifting into the south, bringing in the humidity.

and there are some showers here just to the west of richmond. those are going to be tracking perhaps up toward the central blue ridge in another couple of hours. there is the sky over washington now. sort of a bit of a pink haze in the air now.e day as we hover near 90 midafternoon. might get early evening storms. slight risk it would be severe just south of washington and partly cloudy after that. tomorrow and friday more of the same. a greater chance of storms around tomorrow. now it looks like for friday as well as into friday night. the rest of the weekend looks dry from saturday into sunday, monday, tuesday. still hot and humid up around 90 each day. only the slight risk of a storm. now, danella, how's traffic? good news for you. that inner loop of the beltway now clear. this is up around 270. you can see we're in the green. earlier there was congestion in the area. now we're flowing again. i do want to take you up to 270. this is 270 at 109. i'm seeing delays for you as you make your way out of urbana. once you reach clarksburg, your

lanes are open, and it should be a much smoother commute. 95 north of the occoquan, you are heavy as you approach lorton. back to you, joe. >> thank you very much, danella. we have a traffic alert for drivers in alexandria, virginia. telegraph road will be closed in both directions from duke street to huntington avenue. crews will place girders for the new beltway bridge over telegraph road. the road will shut down tonight and friday night at 11:00 and stay closed until 5:00 a.m. and you may have a tougher time hailing a cab in alexandria. the city suspended 68 cabs from service for failing to get an annual vehicle inspection. that's about 10% of the complfl serving the city. they were notified they had jl the 30th of june to get the inspections. those who missed the deadline were allowed to continue providing service during the fourth of july holiday weekend but are now prohibited from doing so. they're allowed to be back on the road as soon as they pass their vehicle inspections.

a new report shows more people lost their lives on the roads in virginia this past holiday weekend compared to last year. according to wtop, state police reported 13 people died in 11 different crashes. that's from friday morning through monday night. during the same time last year, six people were killed in crashes. according to the report, alcohol was a factor in four of this year's crashes, and at lea five people were not wearing seat belts. today jury selection begins in the federal trial against former yankees pitcher roger clemens. clemens is accused of lying to performance enhancing drugs during his 23-season career. yesterday a judge ruled the statement from clemens' former teammates will not be allowed at trial. some teammates had claimed that trainer brian mcnamie gave steroid injections to several players on the team. the first lady is joining forces with the nationals to support military families. last night michelle obama took to the mound with the military children during the first pitch for the nats game.

several kids threw pitches and took pictures with the first lady and nats players too. and then michelle obama joined military families during a third inning tribute. the nats put on a show too, beating the cubs 3-2. facebook founder mark zuckerberg will make a big announcement today that he's calling, quote, something awesome. tech insiders say he could unveil a video chat powered by skype. other speculation is that facebook's long awaited app for apple's ipad could finally be ready to launch or that the social network will unveil a dedicated sharing app for smart phones. the california preacher who predicted this year's doomsday is now in a nursing home. >> october 2011, and at that time, the whole world will be destroyed. >> that's harold camping making his prediction of an apocalypse. his family now says the 89-year-old suffered a stroke last month and is now getting rehabilitation to regain his

strength. camping predicted judgment day would happen may 21st. his media empire spent millions of dollars in billboards to promote his spiritual rap tour predictions. now as you heard, camping said the end of the world would be october 21st of this year. comedians would start getting their best tiger blood and winning jokes ready now. >> charlie sheen has agreed to take part in comedy central's next celebrity roast. the show will be taped in los angeles and air this september. it will be on the same night that ashton kutcher debuts as sheen's replacement on "two and a half men." the two shows will not, however, air at the same time. sheen says it's going to be, quote, epic. of course he'd say that. >> i'm sure. >> no word yet on who will take part in the roast. you think there are going to be a lot of people waiting in line for that opportunity, though? >> to roast him? i think so. to watch, not so sure. it's now 5:57. the burglar in northern virginia who police say did not want to steal anything, just touch. -dad, why are you getting that? -that's my cereal.

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